Conveying and treating system for loose, solid materials



June 11, 1957 R. J. REMER' CONVEYING AND TREATING SYSTEM FO R LOOSE, SOLID MATERIALS Filed Jan. 4, 1955 v 2 SheetsSheet l n u u P I o o a June 11, 1957 R. J. REMER 2,795,056

CONVEYING AND TREATING SYSTEM FOR LOOSE, SOLID MATERIALS Filed Jan. 4, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent CONVEYING AND TREATING SYSTEM FOR LOOSE, SDLID MATERIALS Robert J. Remer, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to Proctor and Schwartz, Inc., Philadelphia,v Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Application January 4, 1955, Serial No. 479,693

6 Claims. (Cl. 34-85) This invention relates to the art of conveying and treat.- ing loose, solid materials, and i concerned particularly with problems encountered when such materials are subjected to treatment with gases or vapors while being'conveyed continuously through the treating apparatus. An example of this type of treatment is the drying or ordering of tobacco by passage of heated air or steam through the bed of tobacco while passing through the drying-or ordering chamber upon a pervious, endless conveyor.

Unless expensive and unusual precautions are taken it is impossible, in practice of such proceses, to avoid loss of part of the material from the conveyor. Whilematerial dislodged by the treating fluids may be recoveredin large part, there is a certain amount of inevitable loss; and also the problem of the fouling of the apparatus bythe dislodged material.

A primary object of this invention has been to provide a simple, effective and inexpensive combination for recovering dislodged solid materials in a system of this kind;

A secondary object has been to effect such recover-yin a manner to obtain the greatest possible yield of recov-' ered material, while avoiding fouling of any part'ofthe apparatus, and maintaining optimum cleanliness.

Still further objects and advantages of the invention, and the manner in which they have been attained, will be evident from reading of the following specificationin the light of the attached drawing, in which:

Figure l is a diagrammatic side elevation of apparatus employing the features of the invention,

Figure 2 is a cross section on the line 22 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a cross-section on a larger scale, taken on the line 3--3 of Figure 2,

2,795,056 Patented June 11, 1957 ice correspondingguards of adjacent sections throughsliding contact longitudinally to provide a continuous confining side wall structure on each side, asillustrated in Figures 2,

1 ordinarily taken, there is a certain inevitable loss of solids I deposited bed of material passing fromthe entrance end Figure 4 is a cross-section on the line 44 of Figure 3, and

Figure 5 is an enlarged detail cross-section and per spective view, illustrating the mounting and guiding-of the scraper blades in their cleaning run.

The loose material to be conveyed and treated by the apparatus of the invention may be fed from a hopper 10 by a conveyor 11 and deposited on'the endless conveyor 12 which comprises the primary conveyor of the treating and feeding apparatus. The material treated may be tobacco, for example, and the conveyor 12 may have its conveying and return runs extending through a housing 13 in which the material is subjected to treatment with a stream of gaseous fluid. This fluid may, for example, be air drawn in through grills 14by blowers 15 and thence directed around the upper edge of a partition side wall member 16 through heater 17 and the tobacco on the conveying run of conveyor 12, and then recirculated by blowers 15. The conveyor 12 may be of any suitable design, such as the well-known construction in which a pair of carrying chains 18 (Figs. 3 and 4) are driven through suitable variable speed mechanism by a belt or chain 19, and the links of these chains are in turn connected individually to the separate hinged screen sections.

of the conveyor 12. The individual screen sections may each carry a pair of side guards 20 adapted to overlap 26 t0 the discharge end 27 of housing 13. The features of the present invention were conceived and developed as a solution-'tothis problem.

In: order' to collect material which falls from conveyor 12, I provide a floor 28 which underlies the conveying. run, and the-return run of conveyor 12 may extend beneath. the length of this floor, after the travel is reversed by theend sprockets 25, as illustrated in Figures 1 to 4. Material falling from conveyor 12 is confined by partition side wall 16 extending upwardly from one side of the floor and the housingside wall 29 at the opposite side, and this material-is swept or scraped longitudinally of the housing to a-collection point by a special drag conveyor having scraping or sweeping members extending laterally through substantially the entire Width-between walls 16 and 29.

In the form illustrated, the drag conveyor 30 comprises span of flexible carrying members in the formof chains 31"driven by sprockets 32, which are in turn driven-by a belt or chain drive from the variable speed drive 33. Each individu-al scraping or sweeping member may comprise a blade 34 secured through a flanged mounting plate 35 (Fig. 5) and clamping plate 36 to flanges 37 extending laterally from the lower (in the cleaning run) edges of corresponding inner link members of the laterally spaced carryingchains 31. By securing the scraper blades in depending relationship to flexible carrying members such as chains spaced substantially inboard of the side walls, and'extending these blades laterally beyond the chains and practically from wall to Wall, it is possible to accomplish a very thorough scraping or sweeping operation.

The carrying chains 31 are of a well-known type of construction with rollers 38 rotatably mounted upon the pintles 39by which the successive links are 'pivotally interconnected with each other, and these rollers 38 are supported by horizontal, longitudinally extending trackways 40 in their upper, or return, runs, as illustrated-in Figures 2, 3 and 4 of the drawing. In the material-conveying or sweeping run of the drag conveyor, the chain links depend freely from their end driving and guiding sprockets, so that the individual sweeping or scraping blades 34 rest by gravity upon the upper surface of the floor 28 and these blades will continue to perform their sweeping function even after considerable wear in view of the fact, that, in operation, the chains 31' are adjusted so as to hang somewhatloosely between the sprockets in their lower or cleaning runs.

i It will be seen that, while the principal or material carrying convey 12 has its conveying run above the floor 28 and its returnrun below the floor, the drag or cleaning conveyor 30 has both runs positioned between the under'surface of thematerial-conveying run of conveyor 0 t fl r Without any d n e 9 co idin w t th a side wall structure, and to this end, there is secured to each side of each scraper 34, through its securing blade or bracket 35, a side roller 41 and these side rollers may be mounted in U-shaped brackets 42 and guided in their longitudinal movements in their cleaning and. return runs, by wear-plates. or track. members 43 which may be secured within the side walls 16 and 29 at the proper elevation to serve this guiding function.

A transversely-extending trough 44 is'provided at the forward end of the floor 28, and a spiral conveyor .4Sis mounted in this trough and driven through sprocket 46 and chain 47 from the shaft 48 of the sprockets 32, to discharge through the end 49 of the trough material swept forwardly into the. trough by the drag conveyor.

From the foregoing discussion it will be seen that the objects of the invention are fully met in the constmction and use of the apparatus discussed above, as the sweeping blades 34 effectively remove material falling upon the floor 28 throughout its width and length, and the inboard mounting of the drag conveyor driving chains and roller trackways avoids corner pockets where material .falling from conveyor 12 might collect. At the same time, the mounting of the cleaning run of the drag conveyorso that the blades 34 are self-adjusting under the, influence of gravity permits the apparatusto be operated over a long period of time without alteration or adjustment. The blades 34 may of course be replaced by some other suitable form of sweeping or scraping members, such as wire brushes, if desired.

While I have described and illustrated only a single embodiment of the invention, persons skilled in the art will be aware that various modifications and. refinements are available. I therefore wish it to be understood that the invention is not to be limited except by the scope and spirit of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a conveying system for loose, solid materials, the combination comprising a conveyor having a material: conveying run comprising a supporting surface. for de-. posited solids, means for moving said surface progressive- ]y through said material-conveying run, a floor beneath said material-conveying run, side walls projecting upwardly from said floor in position to confine therebetween. material dislodged from said material-conveying run and falling upon said floor, a drag conveyor having longitudinally spaced sweeping members extending transversely across substantially the entire space between said walls, means for moving said drag conveyor progressive. ly through a cleaning .run beneath the material-conveying run of said first-mentioned conveyor, with the lower edges of said sweeping members in cleaning contact with said floor, and laterally extending rollers mounted in position relatively to said drag conveyor and side walls to provide rolling contact therebetween and guide said drag conveyor laterally in its longitudinal movement through its cleaning run.

2. In a conveying system for loose, solid materials, the combination comprising a conveyor having a materialconveying run comprising a supporting surface for deposited solids, means for moving said surface progressive-. ly through said material-conveying run, a floor beneath said material-conveying run, side walls projecting upwardly from said floor in position to confine therebetween material dislodged from said material-conveying run and falling upon said floor, a drag conveyor having longitudinally spaced sweeping members extending transversely across substantially the entire space between said walls, and endless, laterally-spaced, driving chains supporting said sweeping members, means for moving said drag conveyor progressively through a cleaning run supported solely by said sweeping members beneath the material-conveying run of said firstmentioned conveyor, with the lower edges of said sweeping members resting by gravity in cleaning contact with the floor, and trackways extending longitudi nally and vertically spaced between said material-convey 4 ing run of said first-mentioned conveyor and said cleaning run of said drag conveyor, said trackways being mounted in position relative to the driving means for said chain to support rollers of said chain in the course of its return run.

3. In a conveying system for loose, solid materials, the combination comprising a conveyor having a materialconveying run comprising a supporting surface for deposited solids, means for moving said surface progressively through said material-conveying run, a floor beneath said material-conveying run, side walls projecting upwardly from said floor in position to confine therebetween material dislodged from said material-conveying run and falling upon said floor, a drag conveyor having longitudinally spaced sweeping members extending transversely across substantially the entire space between said walls, and endless, laterally spaced flexible driving members supporting said sweeping members and laterally projecting rollers secured to said flexible driving members and contacting guiding trackways associated with the cleaning run of said drag conveyor, and means for moving said drag conveyor progressively through a cleaning run supported solely by said sweeping members beneath the material-conveying run of said first-mentioned conveyor, with the lower edges of said sweeping members resting by gravity in cleaning contact with said floor.

4. In a conveying system for loose, solid materials, the combination comprising a conveyor having a materialconveying run comprising a supporting surface for deposited solids, means for moving said surface progressively through said material-conveying run, a fioor beneath said material-conveying run, side walls projecting upwardly from said floor in position to confine. therebetween material dislodged from said material-conveying run and falling upon said floor, a drag conveyor having longitudinally spaced sweeping members extending transversely across substantially the entire space between said walls, and endless, laterally spaced driving chains supporting said sweeping members, with side rollers on said chains adapted to guide them laterally in their cleaning run, and means for moving said drag conveyor progressively through a cleaning run beneath the material-con veying run of said first-mentioned, conveyor, with the lower edges of said sweeping members in cleaning contact with said floor.

5. In a conveying system for loose, solid materials, the combination comprising a conveyor having a materialconveying run comprising a supporting surface for deposited solids, means for moving said surface progressively through said material-conveying run, a floor beneath said material-conveying run, side walls projecting upwardly from said floor in position to confine therebetween material dislodged from said material-conveying run and falling upon said floor, a drag conveyor having longitudinally spaced sweeping members extending transversely across substantially the entire space between said walls, means for moving said drag conveyor progressively through a cleaning run supported solely by said sweeping members beneath the material-conveying run of said firstmentioned conveyor, with the lower edges of said sweeping members resting by gravity in cleaning contact with said floor, and roller means associated with said drag conveyor for guiding it laterally during said movement.

6. In a conveying and treating system for loose, solid materials, the combination comprising a conveyor having a material-conveying run comprising a pervious supporting surface for deposited solids, and a return run, means for passing a gaseous treating fluid through said deposited solids while moving said surface progressively through said material-conveying said return runs, a floor beneath said material-conveying run and above said return run, side walls projecting upwardly from said floor in position to confine therebetween material dislodged from said material-conveying run and falling upon said floor, a drag conveyor having longitudinally spaced sweeping members extending transversely across substantially the entire space between said walls, and means for moving said drag conveyor progressively through a cleaning runsupported solely by said sweeping members beneath the material-conveying run of said first-mentioned conveyor, with the lower edges of said sweeping members resting by gravity in cleaning contact with said floor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Blanchard Jan. 4, Harris Nov. 18, Buck Aug. 6, Ahlmann Feb. 6, 

